Colombia begins deportations of Cuban migrants

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A group of 14 Cuban migrants have arrived in their native country after being deported from Colombia, which is planning on deporting hundreds of stranded migrants.

Colombia has said it expects to deport over a thousand other Cubans who are, in their majority, currently stranded in Northern Colombia. Many have taken temporary shelter in a warehouse in the port city of Turbo.

“We would like to invite all of these irregular migrants to voluntarily come to migration authorities so that we can process their voluntary deportations.”

Migration director Christian Kruger

Colombia decided not to carry out emergency human airlifts of Cubans to Mexico, as Costa Rica and Panama had previously done, in order to prevent a permanent flow of migrants in “municipalities that do not have the capacity” to deal with them.

The recent wave of Cubans migrating to the US came after fears that new friendly relations between the two countries will mean immigration policies such as the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, which grants any Cuban entry to the US, will change too.

Cuba has blamed the U.S. of politicizing the issue of migration with such policies which “stimulate an illegal and unsafe emigration”. The island’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs considered it incoherent with current bilateral context and said it is creating problems in other countries.

The thousands of Cubans trying to get to the US from Colombia expressed their struggle living in “subhuman conditions” and “constant psychological violence” by fear of deportation by the Colombian authorities.

The Cuban Ministry of Exterior Relations informed that the deported Cubans are now being transported back to their residential provinces.